A harp given by the poet W.B. Yeats to Maud Gonne, the English born Irish revolutionary he fell in love with, is among the lots at Whyte’s sale of History, Literature and Collectibles in Dublin on May 9. After rejecting at least four proposals from Yeats she married Major John MacBride in 1903. The marriage did not last. John MacBride was executed in 1916 along with James Connolly and other leaders of the Easter Rising.
Maud Gonne MacBride in turn gave the harp to her friend Síle MacCurtain who had started a school for harpists in Cork. Síle MacCurtain was a daughter of Tomás MacCurtain, 1916 Rising commandant in County Cork and later IRA Brigade commander and Lord Mayor of Cork who was killed in 1920. The harp was made by Frederick Grosjean, a French maker working in London in the early 19th century. It is estimated at 10,000-15,000. (UPDATE: This sold for 37,000 at hammer).
The sale will offer much memorabilia of the 1916 Rising, in particular relating to the rising at Enniscorthy, among around 500 lots on offer.